Grokster Loses Supreme Court Battle

Posted on June 28, 2005

Grokster lost its Supreme Court battle on Monday. If the Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Grokster then entertainment companies would not have been able to sue them for allowing illegal transfer of copyrighted songs and movies on their P2P tools. The Supreme Court decision means that entertainment companies case against Grokster can go forward, but they will still have to prove intent in order to win against the file sharing software company. The Supreme Court decision said that a company that "distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement" can be held legally responsible for copyright infringement. A Washington Post article explains:

Internet file-sharing services will be held responsible if they intend for their customers to use software primarily to swap songs and movies illegally, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting warnings that the lawsuits will stunt growth of cool tech gadgets such as the next iPod.
The unanimous decision sends the case back to lower court, which had ruled in favor of file-sharing services Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. on the grounds that the companies couldn't be sued. The justices said there was enough evidence of unlawful intent for the case to go to trial.